2022 Subaru WRX Spy Shots via Car and Driver

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Be OK if it was actually red. The Cherry Blossom always looks like it is 15 years old and faded out from exposure.

Personally, I still wouldn’t care for it. It’s trying too hard. I think the small red strip in the grille is ok like they were doing on the S208/209 and tS cars, but when they start adding random red strips on every panel of the car (or any other color for that matter) it just screams Autozone clearance sale to me

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

I actually like the cherry blossom accents on the black car, but it wouldn’t work as well with a different color I think.

Same. I like the accents paired with the black.

[mazeroni]

Little more insight into the WRX, including the styling:
- No body panels shared with Impreza
- Buyers asked for more aggressive styling
- Functional
- Product planner said the last 3 WRX launches had controversy and people will warm up to it.

Other than being ugly, the car is an improvement in terms of quality and drivability.

[weederr33]

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by mazeroni

Other than being ugly, the car is an improvement in terms of quality and drivability.

Wheel arches only a designer could love, particularly, as Doug said, on the brighter colors. I thought we got rid of all that cladding in the 80's.

Otherwise seems like a sold effort, that's on my would not buy list.

Sadly, the wheel arches are carrying over on the Suburu/Toyota EV as well.

[scuzzy]

0-60 time at the 15 minute mark -- good for a laugh

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Sadly, the wheel arches are carrying over on the Suburu/Toyota EV as well.

Not just carrying over, the infection is spreading.



I don't mind similar arches on the Crosstrek. It seems to suit that car well. To me, it just doesn't look right on a WRX. Maybe not at all on a sedan.

[Sasquachulator]

I strangely like how the cladded wheel arches look with the red car, less so in the blue or orange.
Black/grey doesn't really matter since those would hide it the most and make it the car look the least outbackish.
With white its too easy to see the black cladding below.

Theres definitely gotta be to be some kind of body colour match with them either sometime down the line or with the STI.

The Lexus UX got the same flak for wierd black plastic cladding wheel arches. But its more acceptable there since its a small CUV (which curiously actually looks more like a raised hatchback). They added some body coloured arches as part of some option packages recently and it helps make it look less SUVish.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Sasquachulator

I strangely like how the cladded wheel arches look with the red car, less so in the blue or orange.

Yea, black on red usually works OK. Of the colors I would buy (meaning not black) this seems to work the best.

On the MK1 MR2 I always preferred the black whale tail that was on the '85 I owned vs the body color ones in later years.

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by weederr33

I swear that dude talks like he’s trying to hit his minimum word quota for a 5,000 word essay.

[WolfpackS2k]

Originally Posted by mazeroni

Little more insight into the WRX, including the styling:
- No body panels shared with Impreza
- Buyers asked for more aggressive styling
- Functional
- Product planner said the last 3 WRX launches had controversy and people will warm up to it.

Other than being ugly, the car is an improvement in terms of quality and drivability.

I could be wrong, but I'm 95% certain that the last WRX didn't share any body panels with the Impreza either. Honestly I wouldn't call this design "more aggressive" unless they're talking about the huge grill up front which juts out. And I don't call that aggressive, I call it sloppy. And I'd love to see documentation of buyers asking for unpainted plastic body cladding.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Love to rev my high-performance import sports sedan out to it's absolutely atmospheric 6,000 rpm redline!

Okay other than that sarcasm...and the cladding...I'm encouraged by the reviews so far.

FWIW the glossy black cladding on the JDM cars looks much better than the matte cladding on the USDM cars. Levorg still the best though!

- Andrew

[Sasquachulator]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Love to rev my high-performance import sports sedan out to it's absolutely atmospheric 6,000 rpm redline!

Okay other than that sarcasm...and the cladding...I'm encouraged by the reviews so far.

FWIW the glossy black cladding on the JDM cars looks much better than the matte cladding on the USDM cars. Levorg still the best though!

- Andrew

I was wondering about the glossiness (didnt even know it was an option in any market).....i was looking at the viziv performance concept to compare the production car with and even though almost everything about the concept actually made it to the production car, it still looks alot better. part of it was that the wheels and arches are oversized which takes up more body panel real estate (so you dont get the tiny wheel syndrome that a ton of production cars suffer from), part of it was that there appeared to be less cladding used and didnt look all that out of place and was glossy, and part of it was that the car was lowered (concept lowered?) and it doesnt look like it has 10 inches of ground clearance.

[Kiske]

Is there any hint of when the sti will drop.